The Colorado State University-Pueblo women’s basketball team then raised its game just enough to hold off Fort Lewis 53-49 on Friday night at Massari Arena.

But the win was anything but pretty in pink.

CSU-Pueblo shot just 29 percent from the field and only half that good from behind the 3-point line. But the Pack played solid defense and took care of the ball when they did have it.

“Fort Lewis is a pretty good basketball team and they have some of the top scorers in the league, so to hold them under 50 was great,” CSU-Pueblo head coach Kip Drown said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well, but we made up for that in other areas, which you have to do sometimes.”

Former Pack players Jonnie Draper and Lindsay Black raised the money on their own and donated it to the program. Drown said he wanted to “do something tangible with the money, so the former players could see it and we could honor them in that way.

“Jonnie got our first pink game going seven or eight years ago and our kids have always wanted pink uniforms. So this was a great way to use that money so everyone could see it.”

The pink shorts arrived at Massari at 3 p.m. The Pack’s game arrived with three minutes left in a tight game.

The Skyhawks cut the Pack’s lead to 40-39 with 3:58 left. But the Pack scored on its next seven possessions to stretch the lead to a comfortable margin.

“Sometimes we might get a little complacent when we get big leads and that’s something we’ve been working on,” Pack senior Taylor Fox said after scoring a game-high 17 points. “We got a little loose in our transition offense and that affected the rest of our game.”

Katie Nehf scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as they provided most of the offense, and defense, for the T-Wolves.

The Pack’s play early on was an embarrassing shade of red.

They made just one 3-pointer in the first half — and they took 14 shots from behind the 3-point stripe. The team shot 25 percent from the field and was outrebounded by four.

Still, they led 22-18.

CSU-Pueblo built a 12-point lead several times in the second half, but had to fight and scrap to pull away.